John Seigenthaler died Friday July 11 in Nashville.58 November will never forget his generosity

I first met John Seigenthaler at his office at the First Amendment Center.

I was not sure what to expect. The office walls were covered with pictures of him along side Robert Redford, Al Gore, Robert Kennedy among what seemed to be hundreds of others in politics, business and entertainment. While waiting in his office it sank in to me how much of American history he had been a part.

I was sitting on the large section sofa in the corner of his office when he entered the room. I stood up as John made his way directly to me.

In his unique gentile brood he said, “Andy, I am so glad to meet you”

“This is a story that must be told.”

As we all sat down Mr. Seigenthaler never stopped talking. He went into all his memories of my father’s hijacking, the air piracy criminal trial, the civil trial against the FBI. He went into memories of Jim Neal representing Bobby Wayne Wallace during the air piracy trial. He told stories of Gil Merritt who represented my family along with Jack Butler and Fred Thompson against the FBI

What I thought was going to be a meeting of my trying to explain what happened to my father and 58 November, turned out to be a source who remembered the story entirely and details I had not discovered.

When Mr. Seigenthaler found out I had been gathering FBI and court documents he was very excited. He asked that I send him the files to read.

I explained that I had more than 12,000 files to date. That seemed to make him more interested. He then asked if I could print them out for him. Stunned, I did as he asked.

I cut the records down to about 6,000 pages. I had them bound for him and separated into topics. I never expected him to read most of them, but because he had asked I delivered them over to his assistant Ms Campbell.

A week later Mr. Seigenthaler called me to come pick up the files. He not only had read them all, but had his own notes in the margins of many of the pages.

John Seigenthaler will never get to see the finished documentary 58 November. The sadness I feel when I think of that is heavy. He gave so much time, even after he was sick, into helping the project and me.

John thank for again for you encouragement and friendship. I will miss you.

February 11 a major protest is scheduled across the world to let the NSA know we are against the collection of data on innocent people in the United States.

What is lost on our intelligence services like NSA, FBI or others is that when you have a target, by definition you have an enemy. When you have an enemy you have a problem. The way the NSA and FBI have turned every citizen of the world into a target means they have a lot of enemies. I include myself.

I am not an enemy of the my government, however I am treated as one, just as my mother was by J Edgar Hoover.

In lieu of asking others to help they have treated us all with distrust so they should not be shocked that we do no trust them. It amazes me that TV shows like America’s Most Wanted is a tool used by law enforcement for years. It is a perfect example of what is known as an ‘Open Source’ system. It is law enforcement opening up to the public and the public gets a chance to be involved in their own security.

As successful as this program has been for decades, the US intelligence services has used modern technology in a way only J Edgar Hoover could be proud of. The idea they hold is they and only they can keep us safe. They and only they can be trusted.
I ask you all this question along with the NSA agents who is reading this post:

“Would you turn in a real terrorist? I know I would.”

Yet we are all treated as the enemy by NSA. It is time for this to stop.

Now here is the part that no NSA FBI or government official can answer:

“Define ‘Terrorist’?”

That inability to define and or identify a ‘Terrorist’ is why it can be defined as anyone the US Government decides. That is why people like Barrett Brown remain in jail without bail. That is why a rapist does less time that Jeremy Hammond. That is why the PayPal 14 are facing a hard life.

This day also memorializes Arron Swartz who died last year after being pushed to the brink by the FBI in their latest efforts to hinder free speech. There are many others who have paid the price of fighting for a free country and a free internet.

All of these links show people who provide information that makes us all better educated about the true risks of today’s Intelligence Services. They are all under investigation or have been arrested for their actions by the FBI. Whether they be journalists, activists, Occupy, Anonymous or whatever name you apply, many people have seen the risk of too much power and information about every person in the world centralized with the NSA.

As for 58 November, this protest is a way of my family remembering what my mother, Janie Downs. She endured a great deal after she filed the wrongful death action against J Edgar Hoover and the FBI. After she filed that suit, and being seven months pregnant with a toddler to care for, the FBI placed her under surveillance. As she would seek refuge in East Tennessee from the pressures of the trial and the press, FBI agents were monitoring her every move.

What is lost on our intelligence services like NSA, FBI or others is that when you have a target, by definition you have an enemy. When you have an enemy you have a problem. The way the NSA and FBI have turned every citizen of the world into a target means they have a lot of enemies. I include myself.

I am not an enemy of the my government, however I am treated as one, just as my mother was by J Edgar Hoover. I did not choose to be an enemy, they chose me as an enemy.

In lieu of asking others to help they have treated us all with distrust so they should not be shocked that we do no trust them.

This FBI document shows how the FBI placed Janie Downs, widow of the slain pilot of 58November, Brent Downs, under surveillance. This is why The Day We Fight Back is important to us.

The information they collected on her is know as metadata. The tracked when she left her home, where she was going, how long she would be there, who she would see, and her return home.

Brent and Janie Downs

What used to be accomplished by assigning agents is now accomplished by the click of a mouse on a computer at the NSA and or FBI. Having seen the effects of what it can do to your entire life when you become an unfair target of the government, we want everyone to know exactly where we stand on this issue.
Thank you,

It’s late at night. You hate the night because he is no longer with you. Just getting in the bed knowing he will never be there takes everything you have. Then you have to try and sleep because you have two boys under the age of 2 years old you have to take care.

As the glow from the TV in your room darkens and you are almost ready to sleep, the phone rings.

“I know you are alone…” the low voice says over the phone. “You will not beat the FBI…”

You slam the phone down shocked scared and alone. There is no one to reach out to for comfort. There is no one to protect you even in your own home.

Your home becomes a prison of fear.

You start wondering who is in the car driving down your street. You have never seen the car before. It seemed to slow down as it came by the house, but you are not sure. Maybe you are wrong…maybe it’s them.

The phone rings just after the car goes by and your freeze. It’s a friend, or is it really a friend? Are they still my friend or have they been able to get to them?

I know I should call them back and go to lunch with them. But will they be watching? Do they already know my plans? Are they going to in my house if I leave?

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen them, but they know I care. I just can’t go out. Is that another car coming down the street? I have to get out of here. There is nowhere to go they won’t be.

Maybe I’ll have them over sometime this week. Cleaning the house is just too much for me to do today. Maybe tomorrow….

Has it been a month? I know, I’m so sorry, I have been busy with the boys.

Just what do you think you are doing? You don’t know what you are talking about. I DID NOT…(the phone slams)

Well I don’t need that in my life…I’ll never talk to them ever again.

God please don’t let the phone ring tonight. I am so tired.

“Oh hi…what do you mean calling me? Who is this?”

I am so tired of people telling me what I need to do.

Just let the phone ring. NO Andy…don’t answer it!!! Andy put the phone down. I have told you not to answer the phone. Do you want a spanking?

No we are not going this weekend boys. We’ll see them next year on Thanksgiving. We will have a special dinner just for us…doesn’t that sound good?

Mom why don’t we see them anymore? Well they don’t need to be around after last year. Besides, they don’t call me.

Do you call them? That’s not the point. They don’t call so they don’t want me around. I don’t know what their problem is.

Mom please go to the doctor. Yes you do have a problem. You need to be checked out.

“I know what I need.”

Can’t you see mom?

Please remember 58 November and understand that NSA and FBI surveillance and spying needs to stop.

In a response today to an FAA records request, no files or records exist on my father’s fatal hijacking.

This is curious for several reasons, of which I have no answers at this time.

First, The FAA’s mandate includes the tracking of all hijacking incidents and events concerning US registered aircraft, among other events.

Secondly, the FAA does have records both before and after the hijacking of 58 November. The recorded events include and exclude FBI involvement. The same FAA records show incidents that include violence and without direct violence.

https://www.facebook.com/NRNewsroom/posts/563421817061103

Relief suppies being off loaded at Mactan-Cebu International in the Philippines from Kaitta Air 747

The Philippines have been hit hard recently as we all know. As thousands lie dead along shorelines and streets the survivors try and get past another day. They do not need TV’s, cell phones or blue jeans. They need food, medicines and the means to deliver those items to far reaches of the island.

The NewsRoom caught up with an air charter operation called Kalitta Air who operates Cargo Boeing 747s out of the Willow Run Airport outside Detroit Michigan.

Kalitta Air was started by legendary racecar driver Connie Kalitta back in the early 80’s. Since that time, Kalitta has been the single largest influence on the air charter markets ever since. The control systems Connie put in place decades ago of constant contact with crews, craft and cargo changed the entire way premium air freight works today. Most carriers and crews take these tracking systems for granted now in our digital age. Few remember what an innovator Kalitta was in this arena, but the people in the storm ridden islands are glad to have his back up.

The skills developed at Kalitta have never been more important than when called to serve in the Philippines today.

Though ATC tracking is available to the dispatchers at Kalitta Air, the crews take the extra steps to call in each time there is a development. After the plane lands, the crew calls into dispatch to advise that they have arrived, the plane is good to go, and if their cargo is being loaded, or will they have to wait on the ground. As soon as the cargo arrives at the plane the crew calls in to dispatch and notifies them that they have freight and the loading status. Dispatchers relay these calls to their customers to keep them notified.

This simple system allows for the end user of the freight to make preparations so the whole operation goes as smooth as possible.

Carrying vehicles, food, water and medicine the large cargo plane was captained by one of the most experienced pilots at Kalitta Air, Robert DeWitt.

These trucks will be used for a mobile hospital in the Philippines

Captain Dewitt has been flying freight for Kalitta for almost 30 years. He is used to getting his plane off the ground in short order for automotive plants that need parts to remain operating. However, this flight was not only important; lives literally depended on his ability to get there on time.

Dewitt started the journey in Anchorage Alaska. There he met his plane that had been flying from Toronto with the relief supplies. The cargo was an entire mobile hospital with medical supplies, medicine, truck and generators to help the doctors and nurses on the ground.

These are some of the supplies being delivered by Kalitta Air to the Philippines relief workers

The crew took off for a flight that would last 11 hours and 14 minutes to reach the Philippines Airport at Mactan-Cebu International. The weather wasn’t bad as most of the bad storms had passed as they broke out of the clouds around 8,000 feet. DeWitt was cleared for the VOR approach on runway 4 where they touched down about 7:30 am local time.

When DeWitt guided the jet onto the ramp at Mactan-Cebu planes filled the entire area. Ospreys, C-130, BA 146s and other big jets were in the process of being off loaded. Aircraft from Australian, Russian, US and other countries were all represented bring aid to the island.

Leaving a Boeing 747 at the airport taking up valuable space for other planes and supplies was not an option.

This picture taken from the Kalitta Air 747 hows the busy activity at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in the Philippines.

The crew also had to assure they had enough fuel to get to the Philippines and get the plane back out without refueling. They had to fly to another airport with more reliable services to have a chance at returning. The devastation on the island has affected the entire infrastructure to lend aid.

The crew also planned for other contingencies. The crew brought their own food and water to last them in the event they got caught on the island with no way out. DeWitt is used to having to fly somewhere and with no warning having to wait. Often these layovers can take days depending on the operation. In this operation with facilities in question, all bases were covered.

The ground crews had definitely gotten heads up from Kalitta dispatchers about the arrival. Captain DeWitt was upraised how quickly the ground personnel started rolling up the K-Loaders to get the cargo to its destination.

NewsRoom has learned that this mobile hospital still had a way to go to be useful for those devastated by the storms. The only usable airport that could handle a 747 is located on an adjacent island to Leyte where the worst damage took place. This medical equipment will be trucked to a cargo ship and sailed over to the next island. There it will be off loaded, and the challenge of getting it to where it’s needed will be in the final phase.

It will be almost 2 days before this equipment will be set up for the locals who need it due to the damaged roads. Trying to navigate the destruction will be the last, yet most difficult part of this hospital on wheels that started in Toronto.

With all the challenges Kalitta got through. Now we hope those on the ground will be able to do the same.

While this was just another flight to DeWitt and the people at Kalitta, they have made a big difference in the lives of many people who no longer have anything left in this world.

Right now the Kalitta crew is resting in Hong Kong and getting ready for another flight to help the people of the Philippines.

Relief supplies being off loaded at Mactan-Cebu International in the Philippines from Kalitta Air 747

These trucks will be used for a mobile hospital in the Philippines

Capt DeWitt next to the Kalitta Air 747 being off loaded in Philippines with medical supplies

Next section to 58 November…..
Imagine you are a housewife with a toddler. You are also pregnant and expecting to deliver your second child in just a few weeks. You have a wonderful life. You husband is successful pilot; you have friends and family that love you.

Your husband goes to work one night to take a short flight. You think nothing of it and go about your evening and then off to bed as planned. The sun starts to rise and your husband is not home like he promised.

You can’t get him on his phone, and he always calls if something has come up. Your baby wakes up and you go fix a bottle for the child.

Brent and Janie Downs

A knock is heard at the door and you go to the front door after putting on a robe. It’s your pastor from church.

No one called you during the night; no one ever contacted you to let you know your husband had been fighting for his life while you slept.

Though scripture says, “Peace cometh in the morning…” it was not so for Janie Downs and her born and unborn children.

That is how Janie Downs learned her husband had been in the hijacking of 58 November.

However the pastor left out one important fact….her husband was dead.

FBI Agents around Hawk Commander 58 November after the fatal hijacking

As she arranged for the pastor’s wife to take care of her toddler, she calls the airport. She has heard that the company was flying to Jacksonville with the owner and chief pilot. Janie was going to be on that plane.

The pastor tried to talk her out of going, as did others. She refused; she was going to check on her husband.

As the plane landed in Jacksonville that day, Janie was expecting to go to a hospital to see her husband. When she and the owner got off the plane, they walked into the hangar at the old Air Kaman FBO. A call was waiting for the owner.

“Well, were the hell is his body…” Mack Brothers yelled.

That was the moment Janie knew her husband had been killed just hours before. No one ever told her.

Mack Brothers verbally tore into FBI agents who were in the hangar about the fact his plane had been shot up and was now useless to him. He went onto yell at agents about how this was his most profitable plane in his fleet.

As Brothers continued his rant about his financial loss, Janie was led to the pilot’s lounge by Sue and RG Crump.

The hijacking of charter plane 58 November in October 1971 from the Nashville airport left three people dead, to include the pilot, and many questions unanswered. To the son of the murdered pilot, those questions will hopefully be answered soon.

Andy Downs was 18 months old when his handsome father, charter pilot Brent Downs, left the Nashville home he shared with his pregnant wife and their son. “I’ll be home before the sun rises,” he told them, walking into the cool night air. He and his copilot, best friend Ray Tines*, waited at the Nashville airport hangar for their client, a successful, popular business entrepreneur named George Giffe.

FBI Agents around Hawk Commander 58 November after the fatal hijacking

In reality George Giffe was neither a businessman nor an entrepreneur. He was a schizophrenic alcoholic who manipulated the upper crust of Nashville: the families of his students at Vanderbilt, where he once taught Biology. His doctors had him on “tranquilizers,” a euphemism for who knows what in the 1970’s. Giffe took the drugs, drank heavily, always carried one of his many guns, and was being monitored by the FBI. He had divorced his wife and left her with his children, all of whom he terrorized and abused, to marry a student named Susan. Giffe raged from alcoholic personality to paranoid delusional; in between, he physically and emotionally abused Susan. She finally gave up on him and the marriage, fleeing to take a nighttime job at the popular King of the Road Motel on Murfreesboro Road. Nine days later, she agreed to meet Giffe “just one more time” hoping he would finally leave her alone. A man named Bobby Wayne Wallace agreed to be the go-between in the meeting.

Bobby Wayne Wallace after arrest for hijacking the aircraft 58 November

Bobby Wallace owned a club called The Labris Lounge. George Giffe had promised a personal investment that would assist Wallace in opening up other clubs in other cities. Giffe easily convinced Wallace. On Sunday, October 4, 1971, he drove with Giffe in a new gold Cadillac to pick up Susan and make amends. Along the way Giffe gave him a 9mm handgun.

Brent Downs and his copilot waited for their 1:00 a.m. scheduled flight to Atlanta. Their client, Giffe, would call to keep the plane on hold. “If he doesn’t show up in the next ten minutes, we’re going home,” Downs told Tines. A few minutes later a gold Cadillac, bearing two men and a screaming woman, pulled up. Downs requested Giffe wait for the police to arrive; Giffe flashed a pistol. Holding his estranged wife by the hair and waving his gun, Giffe ordered everyone on the plane. Wallace had a gun out. Giffe also had a metal box he claimed was a bomb. 58 November’s tires left the tarmac at 1:59 AM CST.

Giffe decided they would go to the Bahamas; Downs explained they would have to land in Florida for fuel and charts. By now he was radioing control towers at the Jacksonville airport. As he explained the situation, Downs repeatedly told the tower, “No one around the plane except the fuel truck and the person fueling. I repeat, no one else around this plane.”

FBI Agent O’Connor was the second in command in the Jacksonville, airport area jurisdiction. He dispatched FBI officers to the airport, then departed home with his personal weapon, no radio, and no plan of action. He gave no instructions where to meet or what to do upon arrival.

58 November touched down at Jacksonville Airport approximately two and a half hours after departing Nashville. Again, Downs repeatedly told officials, “No one around the plane except the fuel truck and the person fueling.” O’Connor refused to comply, telling Downs the airplane was to be stopped and no one would be departing. Because the pilots did not wear headphones in the 1970’s, everyone in the plane – hostages Downs, Tines, and Susan Giffe; hostage takers Giffe and Wallace – heard the discussions between the FBI and Downs. The hijackers were demanding fuel, charts, and bottles of scotch. Down’s voice can be heard, nervous but in control, on the audiotapes seized years later. He again explains no one needed to approach the plane.

Two vehicles and several agents now surrounded the plane. The FBI refused to negotiate with Giffe. “You are,” Downs told them, “endangering lives.” Against policies and procedures, against aviation rules and policy, the FBI officers surrounded the plane and made demands. O’Connor ordered the officers to shoot out the engine. Officers ran circles around the airplane, shooting at random. Bullets whizzed past the plane, past the officers, and into everything except the targets. Then it was over as quickly as it begun.

Official reports state Giffe shot Pilot Downs twice. Giffe shot his estranged wife three times, then Giffe placed the gun to his right temple and pulled the trigger. All three were dead in seconds.

No autopsies were performed. No ballistic tests were done. A request by the FBI lab to the officers for their weapons went unanswered. Brent Downs’ body was placed on a metal gurney. A few photos were taken. They covered him with a white sheet and set him aside.

There are many unanswered questions in the case of 58 November. Andy Downs has spent years requesting over a million pages of documents, photographs, recordings, and more. “I’m not out to harm anyone, or prove anything,” he says. “I just want the truth.”

*Pseudonym

Andy Downs’ story can also be found HERE.
Andy Downs will be in Nashville to discuss his story HERE
Photo of J. Yates CREDIT
See my website HERE

This is a telegram from the Chairman of the Allied Pilots Association, John Paul Gratz.

Pilots across America saw how J Edgar Hoover’s FBI mishandled the hijacking of 58 November and mobilized. The concern was the FBI ignoring the captain of an aircraft in distress. This is know as Piot-In-Command authority and is rotted in Maritime Law that dates back prior to the Roman Empire. Today’s captains no longer have the authority they once had since 9/11.

The FBI regulations stated that an aircraft captain had the legal authority to refuse armed intervention during a hijacking. The FBI agents, led by ASAC James Jim O’Connor ignored these regulations resulting in 3 dead on Commander 58 November.

These are just some of the states and cities that are now talking about 58 November. Once this film is completed you will want to have been a part of this project.

Please join our Indiegogo Campaign and make a contribution to make this happen. We need you all. Only you will make it a reality.

Associated Press by Kristin Hall

Headline:

Son of hijacked pilot analyzes fatal FBI missteps

Extended Headline:

Decades after deadly plane hijacking, pilot’s son pieces together lost details of FBI missteps

Urgency:

Non Urgent

Byline:

By KRISTIN M. HALL

Bytitle:

Associated Press

Dateline:

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Andy Downs has spent years gathering information on the FBI’s failed negotiations with the hijacker of his father’s plane, which ended with the deaths of three people at a Florida airport in 1971.

He still hasn’t gotten the apology he’s sought, but the FBI recently reached out to him in an important gesture of reconciliation.

His father, Brent Downs, was the pilot of a charter plane taken at gunpoint by a man who had kidnapped his estranged wife and intended to escape to Cuba. The hijacking ended early on the morning of Oct. 4, 1971, after FBI agents surrounded the plane at a Jacksonville airport and started shooting.

The kidnapper shot the pilot, his estranged wife and then himself. The highly publicized shootout led to the first successful wrongful death lawsuit against the FBI and contributed to the creation of the FBI’s hostage negotiation training.

Andy Downs, just 18 months old when his father died, has pried reams of material about the case from the FBI through years of litigation, and he’s used the information in what he treats as a full-time job as a lecturer for law enforcement training classes. Last month, the FBI invited him to talk at an agency event in Nashville — the first time it’s asked him to do a lecture.

“It has been a long road for me and my family dealing with everything we have been through,” said Downs. “The FBI of that era did not treat my family well at all.”

Downs has spent about six years working to get the FBI to turn over records from the hijacking and has amassed more than 10,000 documents, including court testimony of witnesses, audio recordings of his father talking with the FBI, pictures from the scene and previously sealed FBI documents.

One evening in late February, Downs addressed the FBI’s Citizen Academy, a class for community leaders to teach them about how the FBI works. His talk went over in great detail how his father died.

George Giffe Jr., a former Peabody College professor with a troubled marriage, ordered Downs and his co-pilot, Randal G. Crump, to take off from Nashville airport at gunpoint. He took along his distraught and crying young wife, Susan, who had left him just the week before, and a friend, Nashville nightclub owner Bobby Wayne Wallace.

Downs convinced Giffe that he needed to stop in Jacksonville for more fuel to get them to the Bahamas, which the pilot convinced him was a better destination than Cuba.

FBI agents were waiting when the plane landed. An agent told Downs by radio to shut off the engine and said there would be no fuel.

In an audio clip, Downs’ voice sounded urgent as he pleaded for fuel because Giffe claimed he had plastic explosives.

“You’re endangering lives by doing this, and we have no other choice but to go along. And for the sake of those lives, I request some fuel, please,” Downs said to the FBI.

Giffe then allowed the co-pilot to leave the plane, and Wallace also got out and was immediately taken into custody.

Downs obtained copies of the FBI’s policy for plane hijackings at that time that stated that the FBI could not forcibly disable the plane or attempt to board without the permission of the pilot.

But without warning, agents started shooting at the tires and the engine to keep the plane from leaving. It was dark and foggy that morning and when the shooting started, Giffe fired back through the plane’s windshield.

Less than 20 minutes after the plane landed in Jacksonville, Giffe opened fire inside the plane and fatally shot the pilot from behind, along with his estranged wife Susan, and then he shot himself.

Wallace was charged with air piracy but acquitted, and no one served any time for the deaths.

Andy Downs finished his account to the FBI class by explaining how the failed negotiations led to important changes for the law enforcement agency. His mother, Janie Downs, sued the FBI and Director J. Edgar Hoover and received a $366,000 judgment that was split with the daughter of Susan Giffe and the charter aircraft company.

Downs sold his air charter company about six years ago and devoted himself full-time into discovering the unknown details about the hijacking.

He speaks to law enforcement groups around the country about twice a month. He said they are eager to learn more details about the case.

“Even though the Downs v. USA case is what legally started the hostage negotiation teams, it was still just a footnote in their textbooks and they really didn’t know the facts or they weren’t able to fill out that part of the story,” said Downs, who is trying to raise money to produce a documentary about the hijacking.

Former FBI agent and author Tom Strentz helped build the FBI’s first hostage negotiations training program at Quantico in the early 1970s. He said the 1971 hijacking of Downs’ plane and the deaths of Israeli hostages during the Munich Olympics in 1972 influenced the training.

“This case happened 40 years ago and there are still those in the bureau who say that it was a miscarriage of justice and the bureau was right,” Strentz said. “Well, we weren’t right. We were wrong and we paid the price and made the changes.”

Strentz, who met Andy Downs during one of his presentations, said he was glad to hear the local FBI office reached out to Downs.

“I guess it’s a new bureau that will tolerate criticism, but under Hoover, oh my god, he was a whole different ball game,” he said.

Downs said that while his mother and younger brother support his efforts, he has gotten criticism from some family members and law enforcement officials about his dedication.

“It’s important for people to know the whole truth,” he said. “It’s due its place in history.”

FBI’s Assistant Special Agent in Charge Keith Moses in the Nashville bureau was the one who invited Downs to speak. Moses, who has a pilot’s license, said the 1971 hijacking was a lesson worth hearing.

“Let’s go back, look at it and learn from it,” Moses said.

After speaking at the FBI building in Nashville, Downs said he welcomed the invitation even though it fell short of a full apology.

“Tonight was an important step. At least there is a willingness to learn,” he said.